Chess.com
So I am formerly a non paying member of gameknot, I had a chess.com account, but I would only play a few games on here (Thanks Mike Doyle!!) and the majority of games on the knot. Well, it turned out that the knot is controlled and regulated by a highly selective very suspicious automated anti cheater robot that has the right to deactivate accounts when it detects signs of suspicious activity........such as playing your brother a lot! If anyone happens to gander at my online games, my brother (STrani) and I are mortal chess enemies (the swank new chess club he joined, though nice, is not going to save him from losing to me!!) and we play each other an awful lot. Gameknots evil bot took that to mean that we were trying to skewer our rating and promptly shut down both of our accounts! My numerous pleas for assistance to their vacuous support department went unnoticed and unheeded, my account remained permanently locked, with the one opportunity to reopen it being if I started to pay Gameknot! Really? That being akin to blackmail, I started to play on chess.com.
I had liked gameknot because the initial set up seems a little smoother than on chess.com. I especially liked the analysis board because I could go back moves and try out different scenarios as they might have played out, instead of the analysis board on here where I can only try scenarios past the current move on the board. Plus it was the first online chess site I had started to use consistently and I had invested time and games into it, so I was a little bummed to be bounced out by their evil robot. How little did I realize that I should be thanking the automated system, it wasn't evil, it's real purpose is to save people from playing on Gameknot!! It was really a friend using a little tough love!! Thank you account shutter down bot!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry I ever said those evil mean words about you behind your back....and in online forums.....and on reviews for online chess sites....and in the angry emails I sent to gameknot...
I've played a bunch of games on here now, I'm thoroughly used to the format of the site, and it's not as bad as I previously thought, it's actually quite good!! The first thing I see when I get to chess.com is INFORMATION!!! Chess.com wants me to become a better chess player, and it does that by displaying blog posts, current discussions, articles about chess tournaments, articles on how to play chess better, access to game databases and all the conceivable online tools to learn the game of chess!! And it puts it right in your face!!! BRILLIANT I said after a few weeks on this site.
But that's not all, there are many great players on gameknot, I'm sure a few of them play on here too, I had a ton of great battles and I was more than happy with the games I was playing. The difference I have found is that many of the players on chess.com not only want good games, but they are more than happy to help other chess players learn more. This site I have found has a great sense of community and friendship, and that to me makes the experience of chess much more enjoyable. Which is frigging great because I have a ton to learn before I can consider myself a decidedly awesome chess player (Watch out STrani! your time will come my chess nemesis, your time will come!) . Anyhow, my point is this, chess is awesome and Chess.com is a great place to play online, learn about chess, and consistently beat my nemesis.
Thanks to all the people that I've met on this site especially:
MikeDoyle
STrani
Motat
Cammys
Knight2828
Cpesyna
Yours in chess,
Chess337
